It feels like a completely different forum over here

yeah i'll agree. i had no idea that there were this many video noobs. i mean some of the posts here are just plain wrong and a lot of posts from guys who have absolutely no clue about video, codecs, encoding, tv standards, etc.

i'm still having a hard time believing we can't play mpeg2. is this even if we buy the $20 codec for quicktime? anybody try this?www.apple.com

take it from someone who learned the hard way. don't bother spending the $20 on the MPEG-2 plugin from apple. the only audio format that's supported with their MPEG-2 plugin, is the audio format that is NEVER used. Meaning, 99.9% of your MPEG-2 files will play with no audio for $20.

i'm personally glad they have solid H.264 support since it's the best codec for performance/quality/size. not bothered at all about the lack of VOB support.

i'm still having a hard time believing we can't play mpeg2. is this even if we buy the $20 codec for quicktime? anybody try this?www.apple.com

Not quite so simple to quote (myself) from another thread:

Quote:

MPEG-1/2 are multiplexed streams so the audio is mixed up with the video whereas MPEG-4 has them separated into different streams. This means the decoding process is quite different and so while it is definitely on our list, it is not a 1.0 feature...

And a-swift, thanks for the info on audio support by Apple's codec. I didn't know this and I'm sure this will influence how we go about supporting MPEG-2 streams.

Almost EVERY DVD you will come up on will use PCM, DTS or AC3. While I've CREATED DVDs that use MPEG Layer 1 and II (mostly 2), I've personally NEVER seen a professional DVD made with MPEG layer 1 or 2. It's laughable that this is what they give you for $20. The plugin is a straight ripoff.